Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Tom Keating
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Nokia N810 Internet Tablet - woohoo!

November 21, 2007

The multi-faceted Nokia N810 internet tablet has finally arrived on store shelves. This highly anticipated Linux-based gadget has more gadgety features than you can shake a stick at - including a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, built-in GPS, digital audio/video playback, Bluetooth, camera, MP3 player and even Wi-Fi capability for surfing and VoIP calling. Like the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, its predecessor which runs Skype (with the latest firmware), the N810 will come pre-bundled with Skype, making it one of the most powerful portable VoIP devices out there.

The Nokia N810 gives you a truly portable Internet experience that's actually useful due to its large 4.13" color wide-screen display and touchpad screen navigation. It sports a 400MHz processor, Mozilla-based Web browser, and up to 10GB of memory (which comes as 2GB of internal memory with an optional 8GB memory card combined).

Battery Life:
  • Continuous usage (display on, wireless LAN active): up to 4 hours
  • Music playback: up to 10 hours
  • Always online time: up to 5 days
  • Standby time: up to 14 days
Connectivity:
  • WLAN standard: IEEE 802.11b/g
  • Bluetooth specification v.2.0 .






PBX in a Flash Asterisk Distro Launches

November 13, 2007

Ward Mundy over at Nerd Vittles informs me that tomorrow Nerd Vittles will officially launch PBX in a Flash, a new Asterisk-based distribution that bundles in the best parts of Asterisk along with some cool third-party applications. PBX in a Flash includes Asterisk 1.4.13, FreePBX 2.3.1, Apache, MySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin, SendMail, Perl, Flite, and more. Ward sent me a preview of the news that he plans to share tomorrow. Ward hinted in a previous post that PBX in a Flash would be coming in November - well starting on Wednesday you'll be able to download and install it.

Skype SIP Gateway (PE) 1.0 Released

October 30, 2007

You recall my SIP to Skype gateway breaks Skype's Great Wall of VoIP, right? You don't? Well, let me refresh your memory. I wrote:
As most techies know, Skype uses a proprietary protocol and does not support inbound SIP calls.

Digium Acquires Switchvox

September 27, 2007

Switchvox, a provider of Asterisk-based solutions, has been acquired by Digium, the founding company of the open source Asterisk software solution. This is the second recent acquisition since Digium also recently acquired Astricon. Switchvox, with 1400 Systems Installed and over 66,500 handsets deployed, is an interesting acquisition for Digium. At first I was taken aback by this announcement since Switchvox took the open source Asterisk GPL code and added their own proprietary code.

Digium Wins InfoWorld ''Best of Open Source Software'' Award

September 18, 2007

I missed Digium's announcement yesterday that its popular Asterisk VoIP telephony platform had won the InfoWorld "Best of Open Source Software" Bossie Award for 2007. According to the news release, Digium is the only open source VoIP provider to make the list.

"Asterisk is indeed taking the VoIP world by storm," said Mark Spencer, CTO and founder of Digium. "Receiving this industry recognition from IDG and InfoWorld is not only a win for Digium, but the entire open source telephony community as a whole. Digium is committed to taking Asterisk to even greater heights and developing new ways for businesses all over the world to experience cost savings and flexibility never before possible with proprietary VoIP solutions."

Kudos to Mark Spencer and his team at Digium!



Microsoft XBox 360 - No Linux for You!

September 4, 2007

Top 10 Reasons Why I love Asterisk

August 3, 2007

In November 2001 I wrote an article for Communications Solutions Magazine (precuror to the #1 VoIP magazine, Internet Telephony Magazine) titled "In Search Of A Linux-Based PBX" . In that article I espoused the benefits of Linux and open source and pondered why there wasn't an open source Linux-based PBX. It was then that I discovered and wrote about Asterisk which virtually no one knew about and which was still up-and-coming.

Who knew that out of the plethora of Linux telephony companies I found in that article that Asterisk would be the clear front-running Linux IP-PBX today. In just a few short years, Asterisk has built a rabid and loyal fan base.

Digium Acquires Astricon

July 11, 2007

Rich has the skinny on Digium acquiring Sokol & Associates. Sokol & Associates runs the popular Astricon tradeshow and Asterisk IP-PBX training programs. Interesting how Digium, an open-source hardware and software company is now technically a tradeshow company and an Asterisk training company.

Rich's analysis is, "By purchasing a well-known training company in the Asterisk space, Digium should be able to grow revenue nicely. This move positions Digium as a major training powerhouse." While I agree with Rich, Digium just has to be careful not to "eat its own" partners by becoming a competitor to them.

Red Hat Targets Carrier-Grade Telecom

June 19, 2007

Red Hat, makers of the popular Red Hat Linux distribution, is expanding their footprint in telecommunications with the acquisition of Mobicents technology and its new membership to the SCOPE alliance, an alliance dedicated towards building carrier-grade platforms.  Red Hat will work to provide the infrastructure software, platforms and tools to enable a next-generation service creation environment, and advanced delivery and management within the telecommunications industry.

“As the telecommunications industry undergoes fundamental transformation, traditional Telcos must prepare for a new competitive environment that demands greater innovation, faster time to market, responsible investment and new ways of thinking,” said Joanne Rohde, Executive Vice President of Verticals Marketing at Red Hat.

“Open Source is becoming strategic in Telecom, not only as a means to reduce costs, but as a model to inspire collaboration, inclusion and reuse – and to drive innovation.  Today, Red Hat software is routinely deployed in mission-critical Telco IT and Network environments around the world.  Through our investment in Mobicents, our alignment with the SCOPE Alliance and strong commitment to standards, we look forward to establishing Red Hat and open source software as fundamental building blocks for the successful Telcom companies of the future.”

Mobicents adds a Service Logic Execution Environment (SLEE) to Red Hat's technology portfolio.





Asterisk Hardware - Which would you choose?

June 15, 2007

Last week, I posted a blog entry about how Slacht, an Irish company offering a wall-mounted Asterisk-based PBX chose PIKA’s hardware. I also posted a 'teaser' when I stated, "I have some further thoughts on this news, which I can't get into right now, but I will post a follow-up blog post hopefully later today. Trust me, it will be interesting..." Well, it took me longer than I thought to write about my "further thoughts" but finally I found some time. What I find interesting about this news is that there are now several hardware choices when deploying an Asterisk-based PBX.
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